“When I was measuring this tea out into my Breville basket (yes, I normally do brew Oolong teas in my gaiwan, however, this is no ordinary Oolong and I thought that it would be better prepared in my...”
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From Vintage TeaWorks

Inspired by Chardonnay, we blended natural ingredients to create an oolong tea blend that is full bodied with luscious tropical hints of papaya, citrus, and vanilla balanced with a touch of cinnamon spice.

About Chardonnay – Chardonnay is a full-bodied, white wine that has medium acidity and is often aged in oak. It can range from bright and elegant to dense and fruity in style. Some of Chardonnay’s more common descriptors include pears, butter, toast, melon, butterscotch, and spice. Chardonnay has a richness and structure that can be world class….when you grab the right bottle.

Preparation

Having lived near wine country for many years, I was very curious about Vintage Teaworks’s wine-inspired teas. Thanks to beelicious for the opportunity to sample them!

This is a cheerful-looking oolong blend with rose petals and fruit pieces. It has a sweet, dried-fruit aroma, a little peachy. It brews to a fairly light color, with an aroma that is both fruity and mulled-spice-like. The flavor is not initially strong, and tends toward the spice side at first, but develops more with a longer steep. Tropical fruit and floral notes gradually emerge, and the flavor profile becomes more complex. The aftertaste is a little tart and effervescent, and overall it does remind me of a more ripe-tasting chardonnay with fruit notes. After some cooling it develops a slightly earthy finish. A unique and creative blend that is well worth trying!

Thank you Marcel Duchamp for a sample of this one in our swap a while back! The blend certainly sounds interesting. The oolong is one of those dark wirey types. I haven’t had one of those in a while. There was about 1 1/2 teaspoons so I went with it. Vintage teaworks suggests 1 tsp, at 195 degrees for 3-4 minutes.

Steep #1 // 9 min after boiling // 3 min steep
The steep color is a light amber. The flavor has cinnamon at the front then is a bit fruity.. it’s supposed to be papaya. I’ve probably never had papaya so to me it is mildly melon, cantaloupe. Then it has a sweetness like some teas are described as ‘maple’. Tasty! THEN I looked at the description in this tea for chardonnay which I have also never had before. The flavor notes for chardonnay are actually spot on for this tea! Copy and pasted: “more common descriptors include pears, butter, toast, melon, butterscotch, and spice.” The pear would be the mild fruity flavor I’m talking about. The tea is also buttery. There is also a mild toastiness from the type of oolong this is. I’ve already noticed the melon. The butterscotch is the maple I’ve noticed and the spice is the cinnamon! WHOA – all of those notes for chardonnay fit this tea! And also I need to drink some chardonnay. Lots of it.

Steep#2 // just boiled // 3 min
This one screams citrus for some reason when the last cup didn’t even hint at it. I guess because the citrus sat around all day mushy for the second steep, as gross as that sounds. But then the cinnamon was stronger so this was an interesting cup! The other flavors were pretty tame, just citrus explosion! Seemed more lemon than orange.

Steep #3 // half a mug // just boiled // 3 min
Another super citrus cup. Did I also mention all the vanilla beans? I love how this one changes so much. Delicious and now its gone!

A sample of this was provided to me by looseTman – much appreciated, since I was pretty curios about these tea’s.

Dry leaf form is long, twisted, with rose petals, and chunks of vanilla bean, papaya and orange peel. The aroma is slightly floral. I don’t generally enjoy floral tea’s, but one never knows unless they try.

After steeping for 4 minutes at about 90 produced a chardonnay coloured brew (no surprises there). The aroma was quite vanilla, but one of the vanilla chunks was quite large.

If I were to try this tea blind-folded I would say it’s all vanilla. I didn’t pick up any of the other spices or fruit flavours that other’s have. I like vanilla, so that is not a problem for me. As a vanilla tea – it’s quite good. But this doesn’t say chardonnay to me.

I have enough of the sample provided to have a couple of more tries to see if I can pull out other flavours.

Thank you, LiberTEAS! This is almost certainly one I wouldn’t have found on my own. I’m glad I’ve tried it now, because I really like it.

This brews up the color of a dark white wine and tastes, if not exactly like wine, at least similar enough that the name fits. It’s one where I can’t really identify individual flavors; it blends into one harmonious one that I like. There is undoubtedly some fruitiness and a tang to it, and a floral note that must come from the rose petals. I’ll have to decide whether I want to buy it as I work my way through the rest of the sample.